Category Archives: Random Hippie Thoughts

Randy Zuckerburg’s famous tweet regarding the entrepreneur’s dilemma has been swirling my head like a ring of little blue birds.

Fitness got kicked to the curb some time ago.

But my mentor tells me that, “without being fit you’ll never have the energy to keep going.” So… maybe I need to rethink my choice.

Certainly can’t give up my family time.

Friends have carried me on their shoulders to the place where I am today.

Sleep… well… I’m sort of in love with sleep.

The result?

My plan?

I have no plan.

I have lists. Lots and lots of lists.

I have priorities. Writing will take precedence over washing dishes. If my filthy house offends you, please stay away until my success reaches the point where I can afford a maid. In fact, maybe you should stay away after that time, too. We clearly don’t have much in common.

I have values. My crying child gets my attention. Business can wait. Even the supposedly urgent stuff.

Most of all, I have a vision.

Not just a dream. Not a hope, or a wish, or even a goal.

I have a God-given vision and… you know… maybe, since I’m obviously just a limited, finite, flawed little creature, God will carry me forward to see it through as long as I don’t look away from where I’m going.

This post is part of Kate Montaung’s Five Minute Friday. For more, click here.

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama onTwitter or Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

Want to REALLY know what my busy typing fingers have been working on lately? Visit my author page for oodles of short stories and all the latest info on the Heaven And Earth Series!

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday project. Click the picture to learn about it, read what others have to say, or link up your own thoughts.

“It’s just not realistic.”

“Grow up.”

“Join the real world.”

“Get a grip.”

I defy the voices.

I embrace the dream.

Do you realize that it was once considered impossible to run a 4 minute mile? Then someone did it. Now every decent high school age runner aspires to it, and many succeed.

Did you know that a quadruple amputee swam the English Channel?
I have a friend who is wildly successful in business. He earns more in a day than I earn in a year. Literally. He has helped more than 2,600 people achieve financial independence through becoming entrepreneurs. But dyslexia makes reading nearly impossible for him. It was so difficult, in fact, that he wasn’t able to finish school.

Tell him his dreams are unrealistic. Go on. He’ll just snicker as he boards his private jet.

I have big dreams.

My dreams are bigger than the vast majority of the people I know. They’re ridiculous and completely unrealistic and I will chase them with every bit of my energy until the day I die.

Maybe I’ll only accomplish 10% of what I dream of.

But if my dream is big enough, the 10% will be extraordinary.

I will see the world. I will experience life. I will impact others in a positive way.

How do I know?

Because I have a dream.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” –Harriet Tubman

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama on Twitter or Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

Visit my author page for all the latest info on the Heaven And Earth Series!

I have two major projects in the works right now. The re-write and re-submit of my book is in the final stages. Fingers crossed everybody, and maybe this author will have a novel in print and in stores by the end of 2015 yet! Also, Handsome Hippie Hubby and I have embarked on a business adventure that has taken off faster than I ever could have imagined and I’m racing to keep up so we don’t lose that fabulous and all-important momentum. Apparently, two is the maximum number of huge projects I can deal with at any given time because this poor blog has been sadly neglected in the past several weeks. I miss it.

That said, each week I get the most lovely newsletter from Katemotaung.org. They are always well-crafted and encouraging and you should sign up to follow her! Part of her weekly post is a “Five Minute Friday” prompt.

I don’t have a lot of time, but I have five minutes. It sure did feel nice to write again! (Thank you, Kate, for the nudge.) I hope you enjoy this tiny bit of my brain and I hope to see you back here soon.

The prompt:

I have a vision of my home: clean and tidy, fresh flowers on the table, fresh-baked bread cooling on a rack in the kitchen, veggies from the garden in a pretty hanging basket. In my vision my children are playing sweetly in the sunshine-splashed yard and one of my favorite friends pulls into the drive. It might be one of the wonderful neighbors I’m blessed to be surrounded by, or perhaps my dearest friend from childhood. Maybe it’s the lovely woman I only just re-connected with on Facebook after losing communication, years ago.

My visitor and I slice some bread and slather it up with mayonnaise and juicy tomato slices and we sit on the porch drinking iced sun-tea and sharing our hearts with one another.

This day actually happens… once a year or so. More often my house is a wreck. There are dishes piled everywhere and stacks of laundry on all the chairs. The children are plugged in to their electronics and no one can sit on the porch because the chairs never got washed after the most recent storm blew them into the mud-filled flowerbeds (which I never did quite get around to finishing last summer).

Visits rarely happen at “ideal” moments. Still, a moment becomes ideal when a loved one comes to visit.

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama on Twitteror Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

*This post is Day Fifteen of the January Nablopomo 30-day blogging challenge hosted by BlogHer.

I simply couldn’t pass up a prompt asking which book I would choose if I had to read just one, year after year.

I read a lot. Books and magazines, websites, fiction and non-fiction, any genre, any time-period. Right now I’m reading The Fifteen Invaluable Laws of Growth, The Power of Positive Thinking, Jitterbug Perfume, Treasure Island and, if you count book studies/devotionals, Jesus Calling and Fingerprints of God. I don’t really watch TV. Who has time for that?!

When it comes to favorites, though, I love great fiction that sucks me in and challenges the way I see the world. If it challenges my spirituality that’s even better. How can I ever have true faith if no one ever questions what I believe, right? If a book teaches me something new about history or current events, geography or science that’s… like the hat trick of book scoring in my world. Anne Rice, Jan Karon, Stephen King, Dan Brown, Barbara Kingsolver and James Mitchner have all written books that have shaped the way I view life and the way I live it. I can only hope to write something a fraction as powerful and insightful and beautiful as some of the prose those amazing authors have published!

I have shelves and boxes full of favorites books that I just can’t seem to part with. They’re like dear friends. How can I send them away?

Having said all of that, there is one book that I love more than all the others. If I was forced to pick just one book to read over and over again it would be One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz.

Click on the picture to buy the book. It’s not an affiliate link or anything. I just think everyone should read this book.

It’s a fun and exciting read. In typical Koontz style it’s a bit creepy and a bit mysterious. There’s an awesomely lovable dog and a hopeful ending. It’s a fun read. It’s funny. It’s exciting. It’s a page turner. But there are thousands of fun, page-turners out there. This one is special. It makes me wonder how big our world really is. It makes me curious about what’s behind the public face of the people I encounter. It taught me about a school of thought that I had not heard of before reading it and, in learning that such a philosophy existed I became motivated to educate myself further and I feel like I’m a better person for knowing what I now know. Maybe my family is a bit safer because of my knowledge as well. At least, I like to think so. The book encourages me and fills me with hope. It makes me want to be a little bit of a badass with a really big heart. I’ll always be more like Donella on the outside, but perhaps a Spelkenfeld lives in my heart. Again, I like to think so. (Trust me, if you read the book, that sentence will make sense.)

There is a character in the book who is fairly cracked, mentally, that keeps reading the same book over and over to be sure that she gets every tiny tidbit of meaning out of it. I am aware that I’m confessing to doing the same thing but I like to think I’m only a little mentally cracked. I mean, that’s… like… the ONLY book she reads. As I’ve said, that’s not the case with me. Plus I rarely ingest massive amounts of hallucinogenic drugs and tequila on the same day. JUST KIDDING, MOM!

How about you? If you had to read just one book, year after year, what would you choose?

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama on WordPress, by email or Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

If you enjoyed my blog, it would mean a lot to me if you’d toss me a vote by clicking the Top Mommy Blog banner. Thanks!

*This post is Day Twelve of the January Nablopomo 30-day blogging challenge hosted by BlogHer.

I think, maybe, one of the lessons that I’m being pushed into learning in 2015 is to act boldly. I am not a timid person. I don’t shrink away from things, but neither am I especially assertive. I never have been. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I don’t want to bring anyone down. I for-sure don’t want to end up in major confrontation with anyone. But there comes a time when the only way to make progress in life is by being bold.

In the Bible, in the book of Acts, it says, “…grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness…” (Acts 4:29)

In context, the disciples of Jesus are praying for the courage to continue to spread the message of Jesus, despite the potential consequences of being thrown in jail or even executed.

Would I be so bold?

I’d like to think so, but the truth is I honestly can’t imagine myself in that circumstance. People in America cry about persecution but the truth is we have no idea what it’s really like. Christians in Syria know persecution. People of faith in Tibet, China, Afghanistan and dozens of other countries know real persecution. By comparison we are living on easy street in America!

Perhaps I can take a step toward being as bold as those courageous souls by approaching a homeless person to talk with them and learn who they really are.

Maybe I can learn to assert myself a little more by standing up for another mom who is getting “the skunk eye” in the supermarket because her child is crying too much or too loudly.

It could be that this is the year I share some of the things I’ve been holding back about on this blog, for fear that I will start too much controversy.

What do you think? How important is it to be bold? Can you be bold and still keep the peace? When has boldness crossed the line into pushiness/bullying? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama on WordPress, by email or Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

If you enjoyed my blog, it would mean a lot to me if you’d toss me a vote by clicking the Top Mommy Blog banner. Thanks!

*This post is Day Ten of the January Nablopomo 30-day blogging challenge hosted by BlogHer.

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Told you he’s handsome! I just love going out on this guy’s arm!

I went to a business event with my Handsome Hippie Hubby this week and one of the speakers said this, “You don’t have to do much to get noticed. Just do a little bit more than others. Be a little bit kinder, a little bit more positive, a little bit healthier, willing to work just a little bit harder. People will notice. It’s inevitable.”

I didn’t think much, at the time about the statement but it stuck with me and the more I consider it the more powerful it gets to me.

I look at my life and I see what a HUGE difference it would make if I was just a little bit more organized, a little more generous to my neighbor, a little more patient with my children, a little more thoughtful about how I spend my money and a little more conscious of what I eat…

You don’t have to do much. Just a little bit could make a huge, huge difference.

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama on WordPress, by email or Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

If you enjoyed my blog, it would mean a lot to me if you’d toss me a vote by clicking the Top Mommy Blog banner. Thanks!

*This post is Day Eight of the January Nablopomo 30-day blogging challenge hosted by BlogHer.

The prompt for today’s Nablopomo challenge is this: Tell us about the habit you wished you had. What stops you from building it into your daily life?

There are so many – too many to count. I have wished that I was more organized, more punctual, better at sending “Thank you” notes and keeping in touch with those I love. I wish I ate healthier food, exercised more, meditated daily. I wish that I was more intentional about being kind to others. I wish that I was better about setting aside time to be fully focused on my children. I wish I was more responsible with my spending.

I imagine my wishes aren’t really much different from any one else’s. I have wished to make changes that I imagine will make me a happier, healthier, more productive person.

What stops me is simply a lack of motivation.I know how to lose weight and get healthier. If I ate less and exercised more the pounds would melt away and my body would get stronger. It always amuses me a bit how many books have been written on that topic. It’s not that difficult. More celery + less pizza = skinnier me. But, apparently, until now, my wish for yummy pizza has outweighed my wish for a flat tummy. (Pun totally intended) I can say the same thing about any of those other goals. I know HOW to achieve those goals but it would seem that when it came down to it I just lacked the motivation to do what needed to be done.

I have excuses. I’m terribly busy. I have bad knees. It’s hard to budget when unexpected expenses pop up.

They’re legitimate and true. They’re still excuses.

The truth is, when something is truly and honestly super-duper important to me AND dear to my heart I find a way to do it and making it a habit is virtually effortless. I write every day because I LOVE to write and I am absolutely blown away by the mere idea that someone would pay me to do this. I read to my children every single night because it’s a treasured time spent with each of them doing something that I think will be an immense benefit to them. Do I always FEEL like writing at 5am or reading stories after a 20 hour stretch of the madness of life? Pfffbttt!No! But I (usually) do it anyway because it’s that important to me. Keeping my house dust free? A lovely thought. A nice wish. Not a priority.

Tonight I have a date with Handsome Hippie Hubby. I’m super excited about this time together because it’s not just a regular “dinner and a movie” kind of date. We are going to an event called “Dream Night.” It’s just exactly what it sounds like: People dress in their most fabulous clothes and share an extraordinary dinner together and then hear the stories of folks who have achieved their own personal goals, despite (because of?) whatever crazy adversity life threw at them because they had a powerful dream. The whole idea is that if you have a dream – not just a WISH but a DREAM – and you surround yourself with the dream and you submerge yourself in the dream and you cling to the dream day in and day out NO MATTER WHAT the necessary habits to make your dream come true WILL form in your life. There’s no doubt about it.

I feel like one of the best things that ever happened to me was meeting a man who understands the power of a great dream. He has taught me to dream big and with boldness and faith and, together, we get to experience the joy of our dreams coming true. And, you know, every now and then a wish gets granted as well. So, maybe someday, I’ll be thin and fit and my house will be clean after all. You never know!

What big, bold things do you dream of? I’d love to hear about it!

Are you, too, seeking to save the earth, promote world peace and raise productive citizens without expending too much effort?

Why not follow LazyHippieMama on WordPress, by email or Facebook to get all the updates.

If we work on our goals together, they may be a little easier to achieve!

If you enjoyed my blog, it would mean a lot to me if you’d toss me a vote by clicking the Top Mommy Blog banner. Thanks!